September IT Industry News

This is my monthly very high level look at events in the ICT industry over the month of September. More details will be available at the Eagle website over the next day or two.

What was happening a year ago in September 2006?

The big news was the purchase of Freescale Semiconductor by a group of investment firms for $17.6 Billion! Close on the heels of that deal Motorola bought Symbol for about $4 Billion. RadioShack also hit the news in September 2006 for firing 400 employees … by email!

So what about September 2007?

One of the bigger deals this month sees 3Com sold to an investment group for $2.2B, and it will be interesting to see the amount of Chinese influence in that deal. The other deal in the billions saw T-Mobile expand its US marketshare, paying $2.4 Billion for SunCom Wireless Holdings. The busiest acquirer had to be Yahoo which is on a mission to remain relevant in the face of Google’s dominance … this month Yahoo had three acquisitions Zimbra ($350 Million), BlueLithium ($300 Million) and Participate Media (undisclosed). Google wasn’t standing still either, snapping up mobile social network company Zimbra. Other notable companies on the M&A trail this month included Oracle, Intel, Wipro, Xerox, Sun Microsystems and Cisco.

This month wasn’t ALL about M&A, because SCO filed for bankruptcy protection after losing a court ruling related to ownership of Unix. Intel also announced layoffs of 10% of its worldwide work force.

Its an ever changing world when household technology companies like 3Com and sold and SCO files for bankruptcy. The continued consolidation sees the big companies get bigger but that doesn’t mean the smaller guys can’t compete! Speed, agility and focus will ensure that there is always a place for the small guy! See you next month!